Mikeroweworks Foundation

“Mary sullivan is engaged by mr. Rowe's companies as his president and in-house counsel and is paid a customary salary by mr. Rowe's companies for such services.”

“A copy of form 990 was distributed to the governing board for review prior to the filing of the return.”

“The organization does not make its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financials statements available to the public.”

“The mikeroweworks foundation is on a mission to challenge the stigmas and stereotypes about the trades and help close the skills gap. We strive to redefine the definition of a good education and a good job, because we don't believe that a four-year degree is the best path for the most people. We want people to understand the impact of skilled labor on their lives, and we're convinced that the solution has to start with a new appreciation for hard work. For the sixth year in a row, we provided financial assistance to the next generation of skilled workers through our work ethic scholarship program, awarding nearly 200 work ethic scholarship recipients in 18 skilled trade programs across 44 states. These technical and vocational students embody our s.w.e.a.t. (skill and work ethic aren't taboo) pledge and understand the importance of four qualities-work ethic, personal responsibility, delayed gratification, and a positive attitude. The scholarships ranged from $500 to $12,000 per recipient, and each recipient also received a pair of wolverine work boots donated as part of wolverine's project bootstrap. In addition, we helped facilitate the granting of an additional $43,500 through direct tuition credits for work ethic scholarship recipients attending universal technical institute. In 2019, we continued to provide grants and scholarships to like-minded organizations, including skillsusa travel scholarships for 88 skillsusa members who placed first in their state's skillsusa championships but faced a financial challenge in attending the national leadership and skills conference. We teamed up with build dakota scholarship to award finish strong scholarships to 10 second-year technical students across south dakota. We also helped the benjamin franklin experience to build a construction-focused program for south carolina students to help change the prevailing misconception of skilled labor. Through combined social media platforms of mike rowe and mikeroweworks, we often talk about the importance of the trades and the work ethos that embody skilled labor. We wrote and shared dozens of stories and updates about our work ethic scholarship recipients and released three success story videos of our recipients that have garnered more than 1.5 million views. We also brought the s.w.e.a.t. Pledge to life by creating a series of 12 videos called, "unpacking the s.w.e.a.t. Pledge." in this series, mike breaks down the origin of the 12 statements of the s.w.e.a.t. Pledge and why we believe work ethic, personal responsibility, delayed gratification, and a positive attitude are important. These videos were released on mike and mikeroweworks' social media channels and reached a significant organic audience with nearly 10 million video views. These videos laid the foundation for the creation and development of a work ethic curriculum for post-secondary schools, in collaboration with wsu tech, the charles koch foundation, and koch industries. We piloted the curriculum at wsu tech with nearly 1,000 wsu tech students completing the program in 2019, and we look forward to expanding the pilot nationwide in 2020. In addition to public support raised through donations and campaigns in support of our initiatives, we sells books, posters, and other merchandise on our ebay store, encourage employers to match funds donated by its employees, and continue to participate in charity support networks, including amazonsmile, ebay for charity, and the paypal giving fund in order to raise funds to support our mission”